Mincing machines of the above-mentioned type have as a rule a cutter set, which consists of several knives and perforated disks. The food which must be ground up is guided from a screw toward the rotating knives, which each cooperate with a stationary perforated disk connected at the outlet side. Viewed in flow direction of the food which must be ground up, the holes in the perforated disks become smaller. In particular in grinding up meat, it has been proven that hard particles, like bone splinters, cartilage, tendons, etc., will not pass or only with great difficulty will pass through perforated disks having small openings therein and that these accumulate in the center in front of the perforated disks. With a continued uninterrupted operation of the mincing machine, these hard particles always accumulate in front of the perforated disks, so that the output becomes less and less and finally stops.
It is known from German OS No. 2 154 353 to guide these hard particles which accumulate in the area of the hub through a channel, arranged in the hub and which is constructed as a helical groove, to the outside. These hard parts are discharged through a closeable outlet pipe arranged in an extension of the hub. The advantage consists in that during a continuous operation, a plugging up of the mincing machine is less likely and the quality of the processed food is better. However, the disadvantage of this known arrangement is that these channels are only suited to discharge a small waste of hard particles, because they would otherwise plug up. Moreover, the discharge of the hard particles is problematic and complicated.
The basic purpose of the invention is to construct a mincing machine of the above-mentioned type in such a manner that the accumulating hard particles are removed automatically even in larger amounts and the mincing machine becomes only insignificantly more expensive in the manufacture.
This purpose is attained inventively by the knife consisting at least of two knife blades, which are connected by a rotating ring, by a channel for discharging the hard particles being embedded in at least one knife blade, which channel has an outlet opening toward the outside of the ring, and the inlet opening of which is arranged in the area of the hub, and by a ring channel having a discharge opening being constructed between the outer surface of the ring and inner wall of the housing of the mincing machine, which ring channel is divided below the discharge opening through a block member viewed in direction of rotation of the knives.
The discharge of the hard particles is done thus through channels formed into the knife blades, which channels are connected to a ring channel formed between the housing wall and the ring of the knife. The lateral limitation of the ring channel occurs through the perforated disks which are connected in front of and after the knives. The ring channel may be of any desired size, so that any desired amounts of hard particles can be discharged through same. The hard particles are fed into the channels arranged in the knife blades through openings, which lie either in the direction of rotation or in opposite direction. The channels embedded in the knife blades may have a cross section, which is sufficient to accommodate any amount of hard particles.
The outer surface of the ring is advantageously knurled so that the material which is in the ring channel is driven by the rotating ring of the knife and is urged out through the discharge opening.